Railway weed-cutter.



E. LAAS & R. WHITTY.

RAILWAY WEED GUTTER.

APPLIGATION FILED 1920.18. 1909.

974,452. l 1 Patented Nov.1,191o.

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E. LAAS an R. WHITTY. RAILWAY WEED GUTTER. APPLICATIONV FILED DBO. 18,1909.

Patented Nov.1,1910.

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El LAAS & B.. WHITTY.

- RAILWAY WBED GUTTER. APPLIOATION FILED 111:0. 1a. 1909.

974,452, 1 1 Patented Nov. 1,1910.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT WHITTY, OF HORICON, WISCONSIN, AND EDWARD LAAS, OF CHICAGO,ILLINOIS.

RAILWAY WERD-CUTTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 1, 1910.

Application filed. December 18, 1909. Serial No. 533,797.

.To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that we, ROBERT VHITTY, residing at Horicon, in the countyof Dodge and State of Wisconsin, and EDWARD LAAS, residing at Chicago,in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, citizens of the UnitedStates, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in RailwayVVeed-Cutters, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to arailway weed cutter comprising cuttingapparatus which is supported from the side of a railway car and restsupon and is carried, by movement of the car upon the track, over andalong the shoulder of the roadbed in such manner as to destroy thevegetation upon the same.

A weed cutter of this general sort is shown and described in ourapplication for Patent, Serial No. 467,686, filed December 15, 1908.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to providenovel means for making a pivotal connection between the cuttingapparatus and the car which will permit the inner end of the framecarrying the cutting devices to be raised and lowered as occasiondemands.

One of the chief difficulties which has stood in the way of obtaining apractically successful weed destroying machine for railroad work hasarisen from the fact that the surfaces which have to be operated uponare of very different character. The cutting apparatus works upon theshoulder of the roadbed, which generally speaking, is sloping andusually somewhat curved. But the inclination of this shoulder, and alsoits contour, are far from uniform. The shoulder is almost certain tochange in one or both of these respects at different points along theroadbed. In order, therefore, that a weed cutter should do satisfactorywork it must be capable of a ready adjustment to accommodate for theinequalities of the ground on which it operates. That is, the cuttingdevices must be so arranged that they can be quickly and easily adjustedin order that they may be always kept in contact with the ground acrossthe whole breadth of the strip worked upon.

The apparatus described in our application above referred to wassuccessful in this respect to a large degree. However, it was found thatthe rigid connection between the frame supporting the cutting devicesand the car resulted in some cases in forcing the inner cutters toodeeply into the ground and in other cases lifting them above aneffective cutting position. This defect could only be cured by stoppingthe car and making a readjustment of the cutting apparatus with respectto the car. It is not practical to do this as the variation in thecontour of the shoulder is continual. l

Our present invention improves upon the apparatus of the applicationreferred to by providing means, which can be operated by a suitablecontrolling lever, or the like, upon the car, for shifting the inner endof the cutting apparatus relative to the car so as to give the apparatusa greater degree of iiexibility and hence, 'of effectiveness.

The invention has for other objects certain other new and improvedconstructions, arrangements and devices in connection with railway weedcutters which will be hereinafter described and particularly set forthin the claims appended hereto.

The invention in a preferred embodiment is illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion ofa car with the weed cutting apparatus of our invention connectedtherewith. Fig. 2 a side elevation of the same, and Fig. 3 a rearelevation.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts in the several figuresof the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, 10 represents one of the rails of a railroad,11 a cross tie supporting the same and 12 the slope or shoulder at theside of the track upon which our weed cutting apparat-us is designed tooperate. The cutting apparatus is supported from a car of any preferredconstruction.

In the drawings, 13 represents the under frame of the car, which issupported on the wheels let and which carries a number of cross timbers15 on which the flooring 16 of the car is laid. The car may be propelledin any desired manner.

I/Ve have indicated by the numeral 17 a motor having on its driven shafta sprocket wheel 1S, connected by a drive chain 19 with a sprocket wheel20 on one of the axles 21.

The cutting devices are mounted on a three-sided frame 22, the ends ofwhich are connected together by a rod 23 which extends through t-he rockarms 24 secured to a shaft 25, mounted to turn in bearings 26 secured tothe side of the car. The outer end of the frame is supported on abroadtired wheel 27 which is designed to travel along on the sod orground beyond the shoulder and which is mounted in the hangers 2S and 29depending from frame 22. The frame may be guyed by the chain 30extending from the hook 31 on the forward end of the car to the hook 32at the corner of the frame.

rlhe inner end of the frame is raised and lowered by the followingmeans: Mounted in bearings 33 on the car is a rock shaft 34, the centerportion of which is square in cross section and carries the rock arms35, to the ends of which are pivoted the links 36, the latter beingpivotally connected with the arms 24 on the shaft 25. To one end of therock shaft 34 is rigidly secured a lever 37 provided with a tooth 38adapted to coperate with the notches of the sector 39; the tooth beingmoved from its engaging position with the sector against the tension ofits spring 40 by means of the pivoted grip 41 and connecting rod 42.Vhen the lever 37 is moved outwardly the inner end of the cuttingapparatus is lowered. With a reverse movement of the lever the inner endof the cutting apparatus is raised.

It will be seen that the frame 22 is pivotally connected with the car.This is so as to permit the cutting apparatus to be raised so as toavoid obstacles. Any desired form of apparatus may be employed for thusraising the cutting apparatus. Ve have shown a winch 43, having theusual ratchet 44 and pawl 45 and a chain 46 which extends over a pulley47 on a frame 48 and connects with a hook 49 at the outer edge of theframe 22. The cutting apparatus shown consists of a number of cuttingdevices 50 which are of two different lengths arranged alternately, asshown. These devices are of the same construction as shown in ourapplication above referred to, and, therefore, will not be heredescribed in detail. Su'liice it to say that they are pivotally mountedat their forward ends upon a shaft 51, supported in brackets 52,depending from the frame 22 and are provided each with a pivoted rod 53,carrying a sleeve 54 which bears against a coiled spring 55, the sleevebeing held at different adjustments on the rod 53 by a cotter 56extending through one or other of a series of perforations 57 in therod. Pivoted to the sleeve 54 is an arm 5S rigidly connected toa rockshaft 59 which turns in bearings' 60 on the frame 22. The rock shaft 59is provided with an operating lever 6l, provided with the tooth 62 whichengages in the notches of a sector 63, secured to the central one of thetwo struts 64 which brace the frame 22; the tooth being moved in and outof engagement with the sector in the familiar manner. The adjustment ofthe sleeve 54 on the rod 53 provides for an individual adjustment of anyparticular cutter with respect to the other cutters. By rotating rockshaft 59 by means of the operating handle 6l, all of the cutters,regardless of their individual adjustments, may be raised and loweredwhen the occasion demands.

We prefer to equip the weed cutter with means for cutting a straight andeven grass line along the outer edge of the shoulder. A preferred formof device for accomplishing this result is shown in the drawings.

65 is a disk cutter mounted so as to rotate on a bracket, one arm ofwhich 66 is pivotally attached to the hanger 29 and the other arm ofwhich has the pivoted extension 67 which passes through a slot in a lug68 on the frame 22. On the extension 67 is an adjustable collar 69 andbetween this collar and the lug 68 is a compression spring 70. A pin 7lin the extension above the lug provides a stop.

The operation of the weed cutter, as above described, is as follows: Theweed cutter may be propelled or pushed along the track to the placewhere it is to be put in operation with the weed cutting apparatusraised so that it will pass over cattle guards, switch stands or otherstructures or obstructions along the side of the track. The cuttingapparatus is then lowered until the critters rest upon the ground. 1fneed be, the individual cutting devices may be adjusted by a properpositioning of the collars 54 on the rods 55 so that these devices as awhole conform to the slope and contour of the shoulder. The car is thenpropelled, drawn or pushed along the track and the lever 61, whichcontrols the vertical position of the entire set of cutting devices, isthrown back so as to cause the cutters to dig into the ground to theproper depth to uproot and destroy the vegetation on the shoulder. Thewheel 27 supports the outer end of the frame carrying the cuttingdevices and travels along upon the dirt or sod outside of the shoulderproper. The disk 65 cuts a clear and deined sod line along the edge ofthe. shoulder. This device is so constructed as to be capable of Someadjustment by means of the position of the collar 69. The disk iselastically supported so that when it meets with a stone or other hardsubstance that might destroy or injure it, if it were rigidly sustainedon the frame, it will ride over such obstruction.

As is stated above, the contour and slope of the shoulder of a railroadbed is liable to constant variation. Such variation might be taken careof by a readjustment of the individual cutting devices but this wouldconsume altogether too much time. In general, a sufficient conformity ofthe cutting apparatus to the roadbed may be brought about by thevertical shifting of the inner or pivoted end of the cutter frame asprovided for by the link and rock arm mechanism described above. If, foreX- ample, the inclination of the shoulder should become less than thatshown in Fig. 3, by releasing the controlling le *er 37 and setting itfarther forward on the sector 39, the general inclination of thecutt-ers will be changed in conformity to the new contour operated upon.Therefore, the cutting apparatus is connected to and supported from thecar at a point which can be shifted quickly and easily at the will ofthe operator, and without stopping the car. In any position, the cuttingapparatus, as a whole, may be raised so as to avoid obstacles, and inany position the depth of the cut may be regulated by means of the lever61.

It will be seen that when the inner end of the cutting apparatus israised or lowered by means of the lever 37 and its associated devices,the cutting apparatus is given a slight shift inwardly or outwardly, asthe case may be. This is a desirable, though perhaps not an essentialfeature of our improved apparatus. If the vvegetation along the roadbedis very thickly grown, it is possible that some of it may escape thecutters at a first operation of the machine. In such case, the cuttingapparatus may be given a new adjustment which will shift the cutterslaterally and the machine then run back over the same stretch of trackso as to destroy the last vestiges of vegetation.

For work on a single track it will be obvious that the car may beprovided at each side with weed cuttingV apparatus of the charactershown.

As numerous modifications of our invention will readily suggestthemselves to those familiar' with this class of machinery, we do notlimit ourselves to all the particular forms, constructions andarrangement-s shown and described.

IVe claim:

1. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of aframe pivotally connected with the car, means for shifting said pivotalconnection, means for supporting the outer end of said frame, aplurality of weed cutting devices on said frame, and a grass line cutterwhich is elastically motilited on said frame.

2. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of aframe, a plurality of weed cutting devices on said frame, and a grassline cutter connected with said frame comprising a disk, a bracketsupporting the same having a pivoted extension and a compression springinterposed between said extension and said fame, for the purposedescribed.

3. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of weedcutting apparatus, and means for adjustably connect-- ing said weedcutting apparatus with the car, comprising a rock shaft, means forrotating the same, rotatable supporting arms on the car to which saidweed cutting` apparatus is pivoted, arms on said rock shaft and linksconnecting said arms with the arms to which said apparatus is pivoted.

d. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of weedcutting apparatus, means pivoted to the car and to said weed cuttingapparatus, and means on the car whereby said last mentioned pivotalconnection may be raised and lowered.

5. In a railway weed cutter, the combina-- tion with a railway car, ofweed cutting apparatus, means pivoted to the car and to said apparatus,a rock shaft ou the car having a lever, means for locking the lever atdifferent positions, and means connected with said rock shaft forraising and lowering the pivotal connection between said means pivotedto the car and said weed cutting apparatus.

6. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of aframe, means for supporting the outer end of the frame, means pivoted tothe car and to the inner end of the frame, means on the car whereby thepivotal connection between the means pivoted to the car and the framemay be 1aised and lowered, and a plurality of cutting devices on saidframe.

7. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of aframe, means for supporting the outer end of the frame, means pivoted tothe car and to the inner end of the frame, means on the car whereby thepivotal connection between the means pivoted to the car and the framemay be raised and lowered, and a plurality of cutting devices on saidframe, which devices are elastically mounted on the frame and capable ofseparate vertical adjustments.

8. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of aframe, means for supporting the outer end of the frame, means pivoted tothe car and to the inner end of the frame, means on the car whereby thepivotal connection between the means pivoted to the car and the framemay be raised and lowered, a plurality of cutting devices on said frame,which devices are elastically mounted on the frame and capable ofseparate vertical adjustments, and means for raisingand lowering saidframe as a whole.

9. In a railway weed cutter, the combination with a railway car, of weedcutting apa grass line cutter which is elastically mounted on saidframe.

ROBERT WHITTY. EDWARD LAAS. litnesses to signature of Robert Whitty:

CHAs. Voss, CHAs. HAwKs. Witnesses to signature of Edward Laas:

P. H. TRUMAN, E. L. BREIDERT.

